Clothes hanger

ABSTRACT

A clothes hanger has an elongate body which is adapted to carry a garment, and a fixing member which has arms and is movable toward and away from the body between a closed position in which a garment is held between arms and the upper side of the body, and an open position in which the garment can be removed from the hanger. The fixing member is locked in its closed and open positions by cooperating snap-in fasteners provided on the fixing member and the body.

This invention relates to a clothes hanger as set forth.

There already exist clothes hangers of this type, which are intendedeither for domestic use, in which case the time it takes to open andclose the fixing means is not of any decisive importance (see, forinstance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,237,820) or for public use, in which case theyare meant to prevent stealing of the suspended garment (see, forinstance, EP-A-17,542) and a key is needed to open a lock holding thehanger body and the fixing means together. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No.2,899,117 teaches an additional device for holding a garment for theupper part of the body. This device, which is provided with short arms,can be applied to a wooden clothes hanger by hooking a projection fromthe device below the triangular apex of the clothes hanger, the hookshank of the hanger extending through the device. Also, SE-C-157,214discloses a complex clothes hanger for holding a garment for the upperpart of the body, which is unsuited for use in laundries owing to itsmany small component parts, resulting in too-rapid wear.

Laundries are large-scale consumers of clothes hangers which, disposedon conveyors, carry dirty laundry or clean laundry between various siteswhere the garments are treated and delivered. The garment-retainingcapacity of the clothes hangers poses a problem for the laundries,especially at conveyor junctions, in that the garments may easily slipoff or be thrown off. Prior-art clothes-hanger constructions have notmanaged to solve this problem, requiring as they do an unacceptablelength of time for slipping the garments on and off the hangers or beingtoo complex to meet the requirements for repeated re-utilisation.

The object of the invention is to provide a clothes hanger obviating thedrawbacks mentioned above.

According to the invention, this object is achieved by a clothes hangerexhibiting the distinctive features recited in the characterising clauseof appended claim 1.

One embodiment of the invention will now be described in more detailwith reference to the accompanying drawings, in which

FIG. 1 is a front view of a clothes hanger whose fixing means is in theclosed position,

FIG. 1A shows the fixing means when in the open position,

FIG. 2 is a side view, and

FIG. 3 shows a device for opening the fixing means.

The clothes hanger H comprises a basically conventional hanger member ofbody 1 and a garment-fixing means 2, which both are made of plastic. Theconventional body 1 comprises a shoulder portion 3 for carrying agarment for the upper part of the body, a crossbar 4 for carrying e.g.,trousers, hooks 5 for e.g. the braces or straps of trousers, as well asa suspension hook 6 fixedly connected to the body 1. On the one side ofthe top 3' of the shoulder portion 3, there is provided a pocket 7,which is open at the top and at the bottom and which is adapted to guidethe fixing means 2 when moving in the vertical direction between twostable positions, namely one open and one closed position. The closedposition is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, and the open position isillustrated in FIG. 1A.

The fixing means 2 comprises two clamping arms 8, which are fairly shortin relation to the body 1 and are adapted to clamp a garment betweenthemselves and the upper side of the two branches of the shoulderportion 3 when the fixing means 2 occupies the closed position, as wellas a shank 9, which has the guiding function indicated above and, at itslateral edges, is arranged with a narrow sliding fit in the pocket 7.The arms 8 and the shank 9 have such a thickness as to possess a certaindegree of resilience. Being so short, the arms 8 do not run the risk ofgetting caught in automatic conveyor installations used for conveyingthe laundry.

The shank 9 is formed with recesses 10 enabling it to be resilientlycompressed at the lateral edges. These edges are provided withcam-equipped lugs 11 which, when abutting on the lower edge of the sidewalls of the pocket 7, only enable opening of the fixing means 2 when apredetermined, sufficient force in the upward direction is exerted onthe fixing means, in which case the lugs 11 are pushed into the pocket7. When the fixing means 2 occupies the open position, the lugs 11 havesnapped out of the pocket 7 at the top thereof. When the fixing means 2occupies the closed position, its upper part abuts on the top 3' of thebody.

As appears from FIGS. 1 and 2, the fixing means is semi-shell-shaped,such that the shank 9 is formed integral with the one side end of thearms 8, and the upper part interconnecting the arms 8 is formed with aslot 12, through which extends the hook 6.

In its open position, the fixing means 2 is retained by an abutmentprovided between shelf means 13 projecting rearwards (in the directionof the body 1) from the lower end portion of the shank 9, and shelfmeans 14 arranged on the top 3'.

In the closed position, the lower end of the shank 9 extends down to, orslightly beyond, the crossbar 4, so as to be able to retain garments,such as trousers, hanging thereon.

As points of attack for opening the fixing means 2, there are provided,at the upper part of the fixing means 2, two lateral projections 15.Preferably the fixing means 2 can be removed in its entirety from thebody 1, owing to the shelf means 13 having been given such a thicknessas to be able to pass through the pocket 7, which is possible if thelower part of the shank 9 is bent rearwards manually, and the fixingmeans 2 and the body 1 are simultaneously pressed apart. The slot 12allows the hook 6 to pass through it, enabling a separation of the body1 and the fixing means 2. Upper, inner and opposite lugs provided on theside walls of the pocket 7 may define an intermediate, open position.

Reference is now made to FIG. 3. The clothes hanger according to theinvention is well suited for automatic handling, including opening ofthe garment-fixing means 2. To this end, the hanger H may, for instanceby the arm of a robot, be inserted in a blind slit 16 in a rail 17, soas to engage the rail beyond the end of the slit with the one projection15, and be locked in this position by a piston and cylinder unit 18,whose piston engages the fixing means from the opposite side. Anadditional piston and cylinder unit 19 arranged on the robot arm 26 cannow be applied against the hook 6, enabling a release of the snap-inengagement between the lugs 11 and the lower side edges of the pocket 7.FIG. 3 also shows a loop element 20, which is releasably arranged on agarment conveyor (not shown) in order to support the clothes hanger, aswell as a rod 23, which is movable on a frame 21 connected to the rail17 against the action of a spring 22. The rod 23 engages the loopelement 20 in order to lock the hook 6.

What is claimed is:
 1. A clothes hanger of plastic intended for use inlaundries and similar establishments where clothes are handled,comprisingan elongate body (1) adapted to carry a garment for the upperpart of the body, a crossbar (4) connected to said body (1) and adaptedto carry a garment for the lower part of the body, and a fixing means(2), which has short arms (8) cooperating with the upper side of saidbody and which engages said body in such a manner as to be movabletowards and away from said body in the transverse direction thereofbetween a closed position, in which the arms (8) and the upper side ofsaid body hold the garment between them, and an open position, in whichthe garment can be removed from the hanger, the arms (8) of the fixingmeans (2) being resilient, so as to exert a clamping pressure on thegarment in the closed position, characterized in that the fixing means(2) is, in its entirety, translationally movable in relation to the body(1), the fixing means (2) is, in its closed position, locked bycooperating snap-in fasteners (11,7), said snap-in fasteners includingelements provided on the fixing means and the body which are engageableto resist movement of the fixing means relative to the body and aredisengageable to permit movement of the fixing means relative to thebody, the fixing means has an elongate shank (9) which is resilient inits transverse direction and which, with a view to achieving saidmobility, is arranged with sliding fit in an open pocket of said body,the shank (9) and the pocket (7) being provided with said snap-infasteners, said snap-in fasteners being biased to snapped-in engagementby the transverse resilience of said shank, the shank (9) extends, whenthe fixing means (2) occupies its closed position, to or beyond thecrossbar (4), and the open position of the fixing means (2) is definedby abutments (13,14) provided on the body (1) and the fixing means (2).2. A clothes hanger as set forth in claim 1, characterised in that thefixing means (2) is formed with an opening (12), through which extendsthe suspension hook (6) of said body (1).
 3. A clothes hanger as setforth in claim 2, characterised in that the opening (12) is so designedthat the fixing means (2) can be released from said body.
 4. A clotheshanger as set forth in claim 1, characterised in that there are providedmeans (15) arranged to be engaged by tools for undoing the snap-inlocking.
 5. A clothes hanger as set forth in claim 2, characterised inthat there are provided means (15) arranged to be engaged by tools forundoing the snap-in locking.
 6. A clothes hanger as set forth in claim3, characterised in that there are provided means (15) arranged to beengaged by tools for undoing the snap-in locking.
 7. A clothes hanger asset forth in claim 1 wherein said body is an integral one-piece memberwhich includes said hook, said body having a side surface, said pocketbeing located on said side surface, said fixing means having an openingthrough which said hook extends, said fixing means being separable fromsaid body.